“I always had my bigger goal in mind, but the turning point came when I felt really burnt out,” Pong told CNBC Make It, recalling how he succumbed to an allergy while driving from Sydney to Melbourne in 2013.
Returning home to Singapore, he decided to take a break; he left his estate planning and financial consulting job and a food startup to seek out a project that might allow him to present back to society.
Five years later, it’s one-third of WateRoam, the corporate behind a conveyable water filtration system that has won recognition from the United Nations for providing clean drinking water to greater than 30,000 people in distant villages and disaster-stricken areas in Southeast Asia.
In search of purpose
“I wanted to know that whatever happened, I would contribute to it in some way,” Pong, now 29, said of his seek for a brand new project.
He soon got here across HydroPreneur, an initiative established by the Singapore government to enhance global access to scrub drinking water and find solutions to international water shortages. This is a problem that has long been near the city-state’s heart, given its historical dependence on water from bordering Malaysia.
There he met Vincent Loka and Lim Chong Tee, environmental engineering students, and together they developed a design for a conveyable filtration system.
It ultimately took first place over 17 other HydroPreneur projects, “but that was just the start,” Lim told CNBC. “We wanted to see how we could really help.”
Hard labor
The trio decided to check their product by pooling their savings – about 10,000 Singapore dollars ($7,600) – and visiting two small towns near Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Bintan, Indonesia.
But along the best way, the team encountered a serious drawback: the 40-pound “portable” prototype was far too bulky, forcing one team member to undergo surgery for a slipped disc after carrying a backpack.
So they went back to the drafting board, trying 10 iterations before finally coming up with the ultimate product in 2015: a 3.5-kilogram pump that could possibly be connected to a central water supply to offer clean water to a village of 100 residents for as much as two years.
“There are other water filtration companies, but ours is the fastest and lightest,” Pong said.
“Many other solutions are intended for industrial applications. Ours is intended for smaller locations and disaster relief.”
The pump has a retail price of $399, which suggests it costs the community about $2 per head per 12 months.
Winning support
According to WateRoam, it is that this lightweight design that sets WateRoam aside from other water filtration solutions and has helped it gain favor with local communities, non-governmental organizations and company sponsors.
In 2016, the corporate received a social entrepreneurship grant of 100,000 Singapore dollars (roughly $75,900) from DBS, the most important bank in Southeast Asia. WateRoam’s work was recognized by the United Nations when co-founder Vincent Loka was named a Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals.
That same 12 months, WateRoam broke even and every of the three founders and 4 of their staff members could possibly be paid as revenues grew.
“We were really bootstrapping back then, but with the additional resources we were able to do a lot more,” Lim said.
Since April 2018, WateRoam has provided clean water to over 30,000 people in 14 countries in Southeast Asia. The team hopes to assist 30 million people within the region over the following five years.
Pong said this may go some approach to helping the 663 million people around the globe who shouldn’t have access to unpolluted water.
“I truly believe that our role as people who are privileged is to help those in need,” Pong said.
“Even when we are young, it is important to dedicate a major part of our careers to helping.”
Do you want this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook!
